COMMUNICATION SKILLS

ENGL-1119
LECTURE-09
DO YOU KNOW HOW TO
WRITE A SUMMARY?
WAHEED SHAHZAD
Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering
Information and Technology
Rahim Yar khan
 THE SUMMARY
 Knowing how to write a summary is a beneficial
tool in college, because it checks your
understanding of the reading materials.
 It can be used as a study guide in preparing for
exams, as part of a written assignment for
condensing information from an assigned reading
or film, relaying a personal experience, or writing a
journal entry as a record of class demonstrations.
 A summary forces you to think about the
information that you’ve read and taken notes from.
 Additionally, it further checks your understanding
because it requires you to condense that
information down to its essential or main parts.
 WHAT IS IT?
 A summary is a short, concise method of
stating the main idea and significant
supporting details of a reading selection or
textbook chapter.
 It can be thought of as a study outline that is

connected by sentences rather than

numbers, letters, or indentations.
 A summary condenses a larger piece of work

down to its essential parts.

WHAT A SUMMARY SHOULD INCLUDE:
 The main idea of the selection
 The most essential supporting details or

explanations.
 Only the information you have read.
 Objective and factual information from the

reading.
 ¼ the length of the original essay.
 Your own words and the use of paraphrasing

skills.
 WHAT A SUMMARY
SHOULD NOT INCLUDE:
 Your opinion
 What you think the author should have

said
 Copied material or a string of quotes from

the selection
Summary of a paragraph =

MAIN IDEA + Major Details

\
\
 READ:
Identify the main idea
and the most important details:
Computers have become a necessity for both
small and large businesses today. It takes a
computer less than a second to retrieve
information that takes a person several hours
to obtain. It is for this reason that banks,
airlines, and fast food restaurants rely so
heavily on them. In addition, computers can
store large amounts of data in a relatively
small space. Because of this, offices need less
storage space equipment such as file cabinets
and supply closets.
 The Annotation
MI [Computers have become a necessity
for both small and large businesses today.]
It takes a computer less than a second 1 to
retrieve information that takes a person
several hours to obtain. It is for this reason that
banks, airlines, and fast food restaurants rely so
heavily on them. In addition, computers can
2 store large amounts of data in a relatively
small space. For this reason, offices need less
storage space such as file cabinets and supply
closets.
 Map
Computers are important for businesses

speed in store large

information amounts of
retrieval information of
data
 The Short Summary
Computers are important for businesses
because of their speed in retrieving
information and their ability to store large
amounts of data in small spaces.
 Types of Summaries
Summaries present text information in an
abridged form. They can be placed in one of
two categories:
1. Informative summaries – objective reports
on the text’s content.

2. Descriptive summaries – objective reports

about the text.
 1. Informative Summaries
Accurately convey the information contained in
a text or in other type of resource. An
informative summary should be objective i.e.
“without personal opinions in presenting the
ideas in the source text”.
The main types of informative summaries are:
outlines, abstracts, and synopses. Outlines
present the plan or the “skeleton” of a written
material. Outlines show the order and the
relation between the parts of the written
material.
 2. Descriptive Summaries
Descriptive summaries depict the original text
(material) rather than directly presenting the
information it contains. A descriptive summary
should portray, in an objective way, the texts
structure and main themes.
Descriptive summaries often play the role of
reviews for fictional or literary works: books,
movies, video clips, articles, essays etc. In this
case, the descriptive summary can include
statements about sense and significance of the
summarized work.
Thanks